Welcome to Arizona...

As it happens, I'm headed to Phoenix this morning – and as I write this post, I'm sitting in Terminal 1 at San Diego's Lindbergh International Airport, waiting for my flight...

The Pharmacist's Monday Morning...

Via my mom:

Upon arriving home, a husband was met at the door by his sobbing wife. Tearfully she explained,

"It's the druggist. He insulted me terribly this morning on the phone. I had to call multiple times before he would even answer the phone."

Immediately, the husband drove downtown to confront the druggist and demand an apology.

Before he could say more than a word or two, the druggist told him,

"Now, just a minute, listen to my side of it. This morning the alarm failed to go off, so I was late getting up. I went without breakfast and hurried out to the car,

Just to realize that I'd locked the house with both house and car keys inside and had to break a window to get my keys.

"Then, driving a little too fast, I got a speeding ticket. Later, when I was about three blocks from the store, I had a flat tire."

"When I finally got to the store a bunch of people was waiting for me to open up.

I got the store opened and started waiting on these people, all the time the darn phone was ringing off the hook."

He continued, "Then I had to break a roll of nickels against the cash register drawer to make change, and they spilled all over the floor. I had to get down on my hands and knees to pick up the nickels and the phone was still ringing.

When I came up I cracked my head on the open cash drawer, which made me stagger back against a showcase with a bunch of perfume bottles on it. Half of them hit the floor and broke."

"Meanwhile, the phone is still ringing with no let up, and I finally got back to answer it.

It was your wife. She wanted to know how to use a rectal thermometer.

And believe me mister, as God as my witness, all I did was tell her."

Education: Cost vs. Benefit...

What's wrong with this picture?  In the past forty years, K12 spending per child has risen almost four times, while measures of achievement are virually unchanged.  That's not what I would call good value for my money. 

And I'm very skeptical of those measurements of achievement – I suspect they unfairly overstate the real situation...

Ulam Spiral of Primes...

Fascinating.  I'd never heard of this before...

On the Road Again...

I'll be travelling again tomorrow (Wednesday) – a quick dash to Phoenix and back on the same day.  But I'll be sawed off from the Internet most of the day, so there won't be much posting activity...

Spacy Photo...

Looks like something out of a science fiction novel, but this appears to be a real photo of a skydiver in the act of opening his or her parachute while watching the Space Shuttle take off from Cape Canaveral.  As always, click to enlarge...

One of Those Mornings...

I'm having one of those mornings when, after reading the news, I just feel disgusted with the “leadership” of the world's political leaders.  The proximate cause (this time) was reading various European and American leaders reacting to recent events in Iran, Turkey, Egypt, and Gaza.  It feels a bit like some sort of macabre charade in which everyone sees the bad guys, but pretends they're not bad – and instead starts beating up the only good guy in the area!

Bah.

A pox on them all!

I'm going to go do something interesting and meaningful, like drive to work and immerse myself in Java and JavaScript...

Father's Day...

Pondering Father's Day, and so many thoughts and memories that provokes.  My father is 3,000 miles away today, in Virginia where he and my mom now live.  The accompaniments of old age are upon him – he's hard of hearing (making telephone calls difficult), his vision is weak, he can no longer walk very far, and anything other than local travel is more than he can handle.  But though he's very different than when he was younger, he's still my father – and I wish I could be with him today, on this his day.  Or any other day, for that matter...

The photo at right is one I took five years ago, in July 2005 when he and I were on one of our many trips together.  On this trip we were in the San Juan mountains of south-central Colorado.  At that time he could still walk a mile or so without too much trouble, even at the high altitudes we visited.  We four-wheeled all over those mountains in our trusty 1996 Toyota LandCruiser – a vehicle we still own, and still use for such trips.  Now that my father can no longer make such trips with me, the memories of them are all the more precious...

Happy Father's Day, dad!  I hope your memories are as happy, and as comforting, as mine...

Light Blogging Alert...

Today and tomorrow I'm training a dozen or so of my fellow employees, on one of the products that my little team develops.  I'll be a little busy, so blogging will be light-to-non-existent...

Earthquake!

Last night at about 9:30 pm, a moderate earthquake woke us up and had us running for a doorway to stand in.  It lasted perhaps 25 or 30 seconds.  Being nighttime, there was little ambient noise – so the rumblings associated with the quake were quite audible.  In fact, it was the noise that alerted me to the fact that there was an earthquake in progress, rather than the shaking.

The USGS web site puts the magnitude at 5.7, and the epicenter at a few miles southeast of Ocotillo. 

A Sign of Things to Come?

Let's hope so!  In last week's primary election here in California, two San Diego County cities voted to reject the project labor agreements that Obama and the unions support so strongly.  One of those cities (Chula Vista) used to be our home, and in the past few years lost a major development project because the developer refused to be bound by a project labor agreement.

The margins weren't large, but they represent a sea change from the recent past, wherein voters pretty much rubber-stamped such progressive proposals  – even in San Diego County, one of the most conservative (politically) areas of California.  The union's loss here, after a well-financed campaign, is a big surprise to many.

Wouldn't it be just lovely if this were a portent of the November elections?

Hayabusa Lands Its Sample...

Or at least, we hope there's a sample on board Hayabusa, of the asteroid Itokawa.  The video below is from NASA, whose plane managed to catch Hayabusa's fiery re-entry over Australia's outback.  It looks like they've located the sample capsule and will pick it up in the morning...

Vast Riches in Afghanistan...

Now there's something I wasn't expecting!

Morning Walk...

I've missed these early morning walks for the past three weekdays, as I was in Arizona on business.  This morning was clear, with a light haze, and moonless.  The Milky Way was easily visible overhead, though not as crisp as it can be out here.  Venus was high in the eastern sky, by far the brightest object in the sky.

The dogs did their usual random things until we were about halfway down the driveway.  At that point, nearly simultaneously, all four (yes, even the border collie!) smelled something – and four noses hit the deck in tracking mode.  Shortly thereafter, all four were pulling strongly toward a pepper tree in the northeast corner of our yard – and I heard rustling underneath it.  I've no idea what sort of beast visited us, but the dogs clearly knew, and wanted to go investigate.  Sure wish they could talk to us!

California Towhee Nest on Our Patio...

For years our covered patio has been a favorite place for our local California towhees (Pipilo crissalis) to raise their families.  These are one of the most common birds around our home, along with Lesser Goldfinches, House Finches, and the various hummingbirds.  The nest shown at right presently occupies a corner formed by a roof rafter and a joist, just under the roofing boards, in the northeast corner of our patio.  We've had about six or eight nests this year, and many of the towhees and finches are raising multiple broods.  It's a good year for the birds, with lots of food around because of our rains this year...

An Assortment of Wildflowers...

Now here's a bunch more from our trip yesterday.  We haven't identified any of these yet.  If you know what any of these are, please let us know in the comments.  As usual, click any image for an enlarged view...

Mariposa Lily...

The Mariposa Lily (Calochortus luteus) is a flower we see more often on the eastern (desert-facing) slopes of our local mountains, and down in the Anza-Borrego desert itself.  Yesterday we saw just a few of them on our trip along the western flanks of Cuyamaca Mountain, but those few were simply spectacular.  I've never seen Mariposa Lillies with so many red spots and hairs on the petals.  Click the image to get a large view for the full effect...

Spineflower...

This year the pink spineflowers (Chorizanthe breweri) are more common in our chaparral hillsides than we've ever seen.  They seem to especially like small exposed areas on southern-facing slopes.  In places they make pink patches up to 100' or so in diameter that can be seen a mile or more away.  The flowers themselves are tiny - only about 1/8" in diameter.  Both the flowers and the stems contribute to the color as seen at a distance.  We saw these everywhere we went yesterday, but the best patches of all were very close to home, on the eastern flanks of Lawson Peak and Gaskill Peak, as we drove past Barrett Lake on Lyons Valley Road.  Some of those patches looked almost as if someone had accidentally left a pink picnic cloth lying on the ground...

Water in the Desert...

The roads we travelled yesterday are basically in the desert, and usually we don't see a single drop of water.  But yesterday many of the intermittent streams were running, in some cases strongly.  These photos are of a particularly pretty stream near where our road crossed it.  It was very pleasant to walk around the cold, splashing stream right in the middle of the warm desert.  Debbie stayed up on the road, as she doesn't like the idea of falling into the stream :-) ...

Larkspur...

We saw many of these larkspur on our trip yesterday, usually in shaded areas.  There are many Delphinium species in the chaparral, both blue and red, and I didn't try to identify these...

Grasses...

One of the prominent members of the chaparral flora are various grasses, dozens of different species.  Many of these grow briefly in the spring, then go to seed and turn brown.  Entire mountainsides turn from green to brown early each summer, providing a classic California vista.  In large parts of the chaparral, the grasses grow in relatively small meadows, or along road cuts (or natural rocky breaks), etc.  While on our trip yesterday, we spotted several fine examples.  I've not even tried to identify these...

Chamise...

Chamise (Adenostoma fasciculatum) is one of the most common plants in our local chaparral.  Most of the year it's basically an ugly looking pile of fragile dry sticks, and it burns like gasoline in our fires.  But briefly each spring it can actually be quite beautiful, I'll grudgingly admit.  This year the bloom is particularly profuse, presumably because of the normalish rains.  Here's some we saw on our trip yesterday.  I particularly like the dangling branches against the rock wall...

Monkey Flowers...

Yesterday Debbie and I did a little four-wheeling, down Boulder Creek Road and a side road we discovered a couple years ago.  The altitude varies from about 3000' to almost 5000' along these roads.  To our great surprise we found abundant wildflowers at every altitude – very unusual for this late in the year, especially at the lower elevations.  So far this year has been basically at the 100 year average for rainfall, but quite a bit cooler than average.  The combination of normal rainfall (instead of drought) and cooler temperatures must account for the late season.  But whatever the cause, we enjoyed the scenery! 

The photos here are of one of my favorite natives: Mimulus clevelandii, commonly known as monkey flower (supposedly the flower looks like a grinning monkey's head, but I don't see the resemblance).  We have several of these growing in our yard, but the ones we saw today at higher altitudes were much more beautiful.  As usual, click to enlarge...

Palo Verde Tree...

Our Palo Verde tree is exploding with bloom and new growth.  At the rate it's going, it's going to dominate our yard in about 7 weeks (or maybe a bit longer).  Click to enlarge...

Commercial of the Day...

Cheap Glasses...

I haven't tried Zenni Optical (yet) – it was referred to me by a friend-of-a-friend.  Their prices are amazingly low, especially for frames...

Quote of the Day...

Laurence Sunderland, to critics of his decision to allow his 16 year old daughter Abby Sunderland to attempt to sail around the world on her own:

I never questioned my decision in letting her go.  In this day and age we get overprotective with our children. If you want to look at statistics, look at how many teenagers die in cars every year. Should we let teenagers drive cars? I think it'd be silly if we didn't.

Now that's an American showing some some can-do, self-reliant attitude! 

Back Home...

Well, I made it back home (from Phoenix) last night.  At right is me in my rental car (picture taken by my colleague in our customer's parking lot). 

It was hot in Phoenix – at least on Wednesday and Thursday (as high as 108°F!).  On Friday, the weather report called for temperatures to plunge into the mid-90s – and by comparison, that did indeed feel quite cool...

Morning in the Chaparral, Moonless...

The sky was completely dark this morning on our 3:30 am walk; the moon had not yet risen.  The brightest things in the sky were Venus (on the western horizon) and the Milky Way (straight overhead).  Beautiful.

And this morning there was nary a coyote, dog, or turkey to be heard.  The only animal sounds I heard were a few crickets and one lonely-sounding peacock who squawked a few times.  That was it.

Our three field spaniels were nose-down, investigating the previous night's visitors.  At one point in our walk, all three of them wanted to go investigate a nearby pepper tree – a place where I've seen a bobcat lurking before.  They were annoyed that I wouldn't let them check it out.  Our border collie was up to his usual morning shenanigans: picking up pine cones, putting them by my feet, and waiting for me to kick them.  I think he would do that for approximately a year if I was willing to continue the game.

Somehow I suspect that my next two mornings in Phoenix won't be nearly as pleasant...

Cryptography in JavaScript...

Challenging objective: “build a secure, powerful, fast, small, easy-to-use, cross-browser library for cryptography in Javascript” – claimed met.

Light Blogging Alert...

I'm leaving this morning on a three-day business trip to Arizona, with limited access to the Internet and even more limited time.  I'll be back for the weekend, assuming I don't get arrested and deported (I'm not carrying proof of citizenship) ...

Gobar Gas...

Michael Yon has another excellent dispatch, this time not about war.  As usual, his article is well-researched and lavishly illustrated with his photos.  Go read.

Morning in the Chaparral...

Out with the dogs at 3:30 as usual.  The sky was clear and beautiful once again, with the Milky Way bright and straight overhead.  A quarter moon hung just over the mountains to our northwest, slightly orange.  Just to its right and a little higher, Venus shone, so bright and clear that I imagined I could actually see its disk.  The Big Dipper is now rotated at that hour so that the “dipper” almost sits on the horizon, right-side up.  Just a gorgeous evening sky in the high desert...

The dogs were unperturbed by the chorus of howling, yipping coyotes – there was a pack somewhere quite nearby.  I counted at least five individuals, but there were probably more.  I don't think they were more than 100 yards away from us, off to our west on the flanks of our neighbor's hill.  A dog kennel about a quarter mile north of us joined the coyotes, baying and howling.  It was quite a racket!  But all four of our dogs were just doing their thing, acting as if they didn't even hear all this noise...

In the midst of the canine cacophony, there was one discordant sound: a turkey, giving its occasional gobbling.  Worried, probably, as well he should be.  We have quite a few wild turkeys running around our valley, and I bet one of them would make a very nice meal for a pack of coyotes...

Unix Toolbox...

Nice collection of UNIX/Linux/BSD tools, organized and classified...

Spending More to Save More...

Only a liberal administration could publish this memo with a straight face: the Inspector General reports that the Census Bureau says it that it hired and trained more workers than it actually needed as a “cost savings measure” – and they were serious.  One hardly knows what to say, especially after reading all the details.

Oh, the country is in fine hands!

Are you pissed off yet?  Remember that feeling when you vote today.  Throw out the trash!!!

Political Orientation vs. Knowledge of Economics...

Interesting article by Daniel Klein over at the WSJ.  I'm not surprised at the results: libertarians and conservatives, on average, understand a lot more about basic economics than do progressives and liberals (just look at “Spending More to Save More” nearby)...

North Korea: Tourist Destination?

Well, that's what their tourist bureau thinks.  Here's their advertising video to tell you all about it:




My first reaction on viewing this: it reminded me of the grainy black-and-white movies I saw as kid, showing the Soviet's May Day “celebrations” in Moscow...

Best Campaign Pin Evah!

Via my mom:

Bernie Madoff Unleashed...

...and no conscience in sight...

Turkish Hypocrisy...

Victor Davis Hanson on Turkey's hypocrisy...

Could Obama be Hoping for a Republican Takeover in the House?

Fred Barnes outlines why this rumor circulating in Washington just might be true...

Laffer on Taxes...

Arthur Laffer has some grim prognostications on future taxes.  Gulp.  Just what I needed to read on a Monday morning...

Spirit Finds Carbonates...

The Spirit rover has found clear evidence of carbonate rocks on Mars.  Carbonate rocks form only in neutral or alkaline water, in conditions conducive to life-as-we-know-it.  Actually, Spirit recorded the evidence for the carbonate rocks way back in 2005 – but the evidence was recorded on a sensor that was covered in dust, and the dust distorted the readings.  Just recently scientists figured out how to remove the distortion computationally, and thereby found the carbonate rock's “signature”.  The same instrument has collected data for about six years, and the same computational technique means that much of that data can now be “cleaned up”, quite likely leading to other “new” discoveries with old data...

Want to Feel Better Everyday?

It's easy: spend time in nature.  This is one reason I choose to live out in the boonies – it makes me feel better...

Autochromes...

A fascinating online collection of very early (~1910) color photos, using a technique called “autochrome”...

Astrology or Science?

Nicola Scaffetta has posted an interesting paper over at Watts Up With That?  The paper presents a model for climate change that's driven mainly by a number of cyclical phenomena within the solar system.  Some of these phenomena (such as the distance between the sun and the earth) are not controversial; others are considered closer by many scientists to be closer astrology than to astronomy (such as spin-coupling between planets).  I don't fully understand the arguments about the controversial bits, and don't have time to dig into them today – but I'm intrigued by how closely his model backfits to measured data...

Iowahawk on Obama and the Leak...

Don't miss it.

Fun in the Chaparral...

Yesterday a colleague of mine (Aleck L., a software engineer) visited us.  He's a young guy (28) who has spent most of his life in a city environment, so there were lots of surprises for him out here in the country.  We had a great time watching him react to various things, such as the personalities and behaviors of our dogs (he spent a lot of time throwing things for Race) and the cats (he really liked Maka Lea's personality, and Halala Pala's magnificent tail), the birds on our feeders, hummingbirds buzzing him, etc., etc.  Debbie cooked a feast for us – shrimp, salmon, asparagus, green onions, and mushrooms on the grill, and an apple cobbler for dessert.  We were not hungry!

But the best part of all came near the end of the day, when we just casually mentioned to Aleck that we liked to go four-wheeling – something he'd never done.  This surprised him (he's often surprised by the things I like to do), and we asked him if he'd like to go with us sometime.  An emphatic yes.  So then it occurred to us that despite it being 4 pm, we could still make it out to Los Pinos that same day – so we asked if he'd like to go right now, and got another emphatic yes.

So we all piled into the old LandCruiser and took off for Los Pinos.  That trip was a whole series of new experiences for Aleck, and lots of fun for us to share them with him.  We were surprised at the abundant wildflowers at this late date – we saw several beautiful types that we didn't recognize, plus larkspurs, a lupine that was new to us, huge quantities of penstemmon, and some of the nicest Indian Paintbrush we've seen in San Diego County.

At several points along the Corte Madera road, Aleck broke out his iPhone and took short videos of us traversing some parts of the road that looked challenging to him.  That particular road gets more challenging as you go, so we kept running into spots that topped anything he'd seen before – and out came the iPhone again.  We all had a grand time, but we didn't get back home until around 9 pm.  That's late for us, but Aleck said it was plenty of time for him to go to “his next party” – and I do believe that's exactly what he did.  Debbie and I went to bed ...

We Con the World...

Sums it up pretty nicely...

Watts Roundup...

In the space of just 24 hours, Watts Up With That? posts about how the Pacific Islands aren't really sinking, the arctic ice isn't really disappearing, and astronaut Harrison Schmitt bridles at the comparison between Apollo 13 and the BP response.

Who Knew?

Steve McIntyre:

Did any of you know that the US supposedly has a National Contingency Plan for dealing with very large oil spills? And that EPA has legal responsibility for maintaining readiness for such an eventuality? Who knew? I’ve watched hours of coverage and this hasn’t been mentioned anywhere.

Read all about it.

Bayes' Theorum, Visualized...

Here.

How to Plug the Oil Leak in the Gulf...

Via my mom...

Yikes!

In Guatemala City...

Of Course, the Press Is Completely Unbiased!

Via my mom:

A Harley biker is riding by the zoo in Washington, DC when he sees a little girl leaning in too close to the lion's cage. Suddenly, the lion grabs her by her jacket collar and tries to pull her inside to slaughter her, under the eyes of her screaming parents.

The biker jumps off his Harley, runs to the cage and hits the lion square on the nose with a powerful punch.

Whimpering from the pain the lion jumps back, letting go of the girl, and the biker brings her to her terrified parents, who thank him endlessly. A reporter has watched the whole event.

The reporter, addressing the Harley rider says, 'Sir, this was the bravest and most gallant act I've seen a man do in my whole life!'

The Harley rider replies, 'Why, it was nothing, really - the lion was behind bars. I just saw this little girl in danger and acted as I felt I should.'

The reporter says, 'Well, I'll make sure this won't go unnoticed. I'm a journalist, you know, and tomorrow's paper will have this story on the front page...
So, what do you do for a living and what political affiliation do you have?'

The biker replies, 'I'm a U.S. Marine and a Republican.'

The journalist leaves.
The following morning the biker buys the paper to see if it indeed brings news of his actions, and reads, on the front page as promised:
________________________________________________________________
U.S. MARINE ASSAULTS AFRICAN IMMIGRANT AND STEALS HIS LUNCH
________________________________________________________________

That pretty much sums up the media's approach to the news these days!!!

Manning Predicts Revolution in America...

I've posted one of this guy's rants before, and I have the same reaction this time that I did then.

Via my mom, Dr. James David Manning ranting preaching about white revolution in America:

Awesome Quadrotors...

Via reader Doug S.:

Hearing for the First Time...

Lawyers Cause Problems...

I can't believe we're even having a discussion about lawyers on the battlefield, much less actually giving them operational control over weaponry.  We're morphing into Euroweenies faster than I thought, I guess. 

But at least someone had the good sense to take the keys to the UAVs away from the lawyers...

Another One Bites the Dust...

Sheik Sa'id al-Masri, Al Qaeda's third in command, has died from the complications of old age, mental illness, and American-supplied high explosives (but mostly from Amercian-supplied high explosives).

Excellent...

What Every Programmer Should Know About Memory...

Excellent article...

Cartoon of the Day...

A New Personal Project...

Because I just don't have enough things going on in my life!  I'm going to learn Scala.  This is what motivated me.  Here are some resources...

Phobos is Hollow?

Apparently there's some data from at least two of the spacecraft orbiting Mars that indicates that about 1/3 of the volume of Phobos is empty.  I haven't been able to locate the original reports of this.  For all I know, this simply means that Phobos is really just a loose collection of boulders with lots of empty space between them – or possibly even the conclusions about the data are misrepresented. 

But whatever the data and conclusions are, the tin-foil hat brigade is already at it...

Extended Solar Minimum...

Even the mainstream scientific press is starting to talk about the very odd, extended solar minimum we're experiencing.  Next thing you know, they'll start wondering about its impact on climate!

Mickey Kaus vs. “The Box”

Mickey Kaus is running his “Long-shot, bare-bones, grassroots, maverick, seat-of-the pants or independent, but not symbolic, or quixotic” campaign against Barbara Boxer.  I like the cardboard box on the podium!

Memorial Day Message...

From Ted Nugent:

Never forget them. Make every day Memorial Day.

What he said.

The Sarah Palin Homunculus that Lives Inside Liberals' Heads...

IowaHawk is at it again.  WARNING: put your drink down before reading...

Arctic Ice News...

It's Arctic Ice week, or at least it seems like it over at Watts Up With That?

Volcanic Smoke Ring...

Steve and Donna O'Meara captured this photo of a smoke ring shooting out of the Eyjafjallajokull Volcano on May 1, on Iceland.  Anthony Watts estimates its diameter at 1 to 2 kilometers (about a mile).  Awesome!

Quote of the Day...

From Escort81 (at TigerHawk), upon seeing this bumper sticker on a Prius:

If you've lost the Whole Foods-shopping Prius-driving voter, you've lost liberal America, and you're in trouble with your base.

Don't miss the comments...

Miracle of the Little Ships...

Seventy years ago this week, a ragtag, hastily-organized flotilla of some 850 little ships – mostly civilian – crossed the English Channel to Dunkirk to rescue over 300,000 British and French troops under siege from the Nazis.  Through a combination of excellent adaptive leadership, enthusiastic civilian participation (at great risk to both the sailors and their boats), numerous tactical errors and poor leadership on the part of the Nazis, and pure blind luck, they pulled off one of the most amazing wartime feats ever. 

This week, more than 50 of the remaining “little ships” are making a commemorative crossing from Dover to Dunkirk.  The last such crossing was in 1990, on the 50th anniversary...

Good Bosses Believe...

According to Robert Sutton, good bosses believe twelve things.  Lots of ground truth here, I think...

More Dogs...

Here are the promised videos...